JohnHowardSociety

By: Nick Liard

The John Howard Society of Sudbury is jumping on board with a report that calls for better connectivity in the health services for correctional institutions.

The report is by the provincial John Howard Society which outlines how inmates are serviced by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services rather than the Ministry of Health.

The report is called Fractured Care: Public health opportunities in Ontario’s Correctional Institutions

Executive Director John Rimore says inmates are not allowed to take medication into jail with them and have to be assessed by a doctor who has never dealt with them before.

Report Author Michelle Keast says it’s important to promote effective rehabilitation and this current system isn’t doing so.

Keast says inmates are the only group of people in the province not serviced by the Ministry of Health but instead are looked after by a small resource pool in the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

Rimore says they’re not knocking the system they are just calling for change.

The John Howard Society is calling for all people in Ontario to be serviced by the Ministry of Health.